Any time a purchased article is returned by a consumer, it presents a problem to the retailer taking back the article. If the package containing the article is unopened, the package and article can simply be returned to the spot on the shelf they previously occupied. However, if the package has been opened, the retailer is faced with a dilemma of whether to have the article repackaged or simply to attempt to repair the package and return it to the shelf. Unfortunately, a taped up or poorly repaired package is often undesirable to a prospective purchaser because the prospective purchaser perceives the article in the package as being somehow blemished or less than new. When this occurs, the article can remain unsold for an undesirably long time causing the retailer to lose profits. Unfortunately, the longer the article remains unsold, the less profit made by the retailer. Ultimately, if an article remains unsold for too long, the retailer will have either to significantly discount its price or have it repackaged and returned. Either way the retailer's profits are undesirably lessened.
Packaging manufacturers have developed many kinds of reclosable packaging in an effort to help solve this problem. Yet, the reclosable packaging must also be able to display the article in the package, as well as any associated graphics on a card of the package, in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing to a prospective purchaser while permitting access to the article in a manner that allows the article to be removed from the package.
For example, many types of reclosable packaging have a forwardly facing access opening covered by a front-opening door connected by a hinge to another part of the packaging. One known method of keeping the door closed over the access opening is to use an adhesive label, such as in the manner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,627. Another known method of keeping the door closed, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,883, is to use interlocking dimples that releasably secure the door to another portion of the packaging such that the door is retained by the dimples in the closed position. It is also not unusual for a door that is to be held in the closed position by these dimples to be formed entirely from a front-half or rear-half of the package such that the package is a clamshell configuration. In a third known method of keeping the door closed, a card received in a track in the packaging can be slid between an open position uncovering the opening and a closed position covering the opening. Usually, in all of these instances, a label, such as a tamper-proof or tamper-evident label or another aid that undesirably requires an additional manufacturing step is used to keep the door or card over the opening from moving away from the closed position.
While each of these configurations has advantages, each also has drawbacks. For example, for those packages that require a label to keep the door closed, replacing the label when a package is returned takes time, utilizes labor, and costs money. Moreover, many reclosable packages, including the package disclosed in the '249 patent, are rather complicated in shape and costly to manufacture. For clamshell packages where the door utilizes locking dimples, the dimples can be disadvantageous because their performance is extremely sensitive to manufacturing tolerance variations and, as a result, there is often a wide variance in the force required to open and close the door. Moreover, none of these reclosable package configurations can dispense articles out an end of the package.
What is needed is a reclosable package into which an article can be reinserted and returned to a store shelf or display area without a prospective customer detecting that the package and article were previously returned. What is needed is an access door that does not require a label or the like to keep it closed. What is also needed is a reclosable package where articles, including articles longer than the package width, can easily be removed from and inserted into the package from one end. What is further needed, is a package that achieves at least some or all of these objectives while being quick, simple, and inexpensive to manufacture.